Early/Middle Formative Pottery Production and Exchange in the Emergence of Social Complexity in the Mixteca Alta, Oaxaca

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Checking the Pulse: Current Research in Oaxaca Part I" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Multiple lines of evidence, including pottery production, multicrafting, goods and routes of exchange, architecture, and funerary practices, support the idea that Tayata in the Mixteca Alta was immersed in social transformations observed across different regions during the Early/Middle Formative (ca. 1400–350 BC). Changes at this macrolevel could affect local and regional developments, such as the emergence of social complexity. Tayata interactions with multiple areas were closely related to its local development process, showing particularly similarities with the Central Valley of Oaxaca in public constructions, like the one-room temple, and rituals, such as feasting and funerary practices. In addition, the results of portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) analysis of 141 samples from Tayata, in conjunction with neutron activation analysis (NAA) of 66 specimens, show that pottery production at Tayata followed both regional and macroregional traditions, and the imported pottery was mainly the result of a major Pacific coast exchange route that crosses the lowland coastal Isthmus of Tehuantepec, the mountainous Nejapa/Yautepec region, and the highland Central Valleys of Oaxaca. From there the route reaches the north of the Mixtec Alta, being a corridor of influence in both goods and ideas to the Mixteca, including Tayata.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Checking the Pulse: Current Research in Oaxaca Part I   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36315.0